Welcome.
These are some of the attempts at verse that I have made over the years. I trust that they are to the glory of the Lord Jesus - and that putting them here is to His glory too.
I have now posted most that I have written at least once but continue in case a new audience finds new blessing. Occasionally I throw in some other verse.
Comment are welcome.

Saturday, 26 August 2017

As a tree
Grown for Thee
O Lord, bend me!
May I tend
To Thy light;
May I wend
To Thy right;
To conform
To Thy way,
To be warm
In Thy day,
To be still
In Thy mind
May my will
Be confined:
O Lord, bend me!

Thursday, 24 August 2017

O Lord, tend me!
Thy work in its perfection,
As proved in resurrection,
Through all Thy pain
And all Thy strife,
Secured my gain
And gave me life:
In life which Thou dost give,
In which my soul doth live,
O Lord, bend me!

Tuesday, 22 August 2017

i
O Lord, bend me:
One to be saved;
Sins claws rend,
Lost and depraved!
Thus I have cried:
Thus been denied.
Grace that is to save
Could not bend me:
But the cross and grave
Had to end me.This follows from Evan Roberts's prayer:The Welsh Revival

Tuesday, 15 August 2017

When I was far from lightWithin this world of liesA Man called Jesus touched my eyesAnd gave me sight.My leprous wounds were seen:Men heard my plaintive pleaA Man called Jesus handled meAnd made me clean.Bowed down, I had to wait,Powerless to show my face:A Man called Jesus touched in graceAnd made me straight.Beyond man to forgive,Fixed in what all men fear,A Man called Jesus touched my bierAnd made me live.27/04/12

Saturday, 12 August 2017

(Written May 2004; found recently in an old notebook; a week worth recalling!)

Let me record a week - it beganWith Christ as a Man of joy. Because He hasHis victory, His brethren and His bride - what layBefore Him as He endured the cross. And He introducesSaints to the Father's house that with the FatherHe rejoices in them and they in Him.Next we had the worth of the pearl acquiredBy a Merchant skilled in evaluation; and the worthOf a Bridegroom to a Bride, whose educators in valueAre the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. In the gospelWe had Christ drawn to our attention to beThe unmingled object of the heart, the ManWho delighted and satisfied God and His saints.On Monday we asked the Lord to teach usMore of His blest ways - so on TuesdayWe had Christ brought before us as source ofWisdom - none being so discreet or wiseAs Him, without whom we can do nothing.I attempted to expostulate on the BelovedDescribed in the Song of Songs - but this isAnother poem - or twelve!. On SaturdayWe had the challenging question - Who doYe say that I am? - and dwelt uponThe Christ of God, One whom God anointedTo act for Him and secure all His pleasure.And through it all I dodged and blundered,World, and flesh, and Satan tugging me:Yet knowing that I know the Father asAntagonist of the world, the Spirit as opponentOf the flesh, and the Son, Vanquisher of Satan.

Wednesday, 9 August 2017

We saw a trampled shoot, a plinthWithout a column, and a flameGuttering, one little but a nameWho would not quit her labyrinth.God saw perfection - only thisPearl, of this size, could deck the siteHe had prepared for His delightAnd for Marina's lasting bliss,Only through working in these waysCould He impinge with perfect skillTo work this pattern to His willAnd gain from us eternal praise.O depths of riches - what divineWisdom and power and love can doImpels our worship as we viewHow God secures His grand design!

Written July to September 1994

The verse I used is that used by Tennyson in "In Memoriam"; it is his wife who is buried in the same churchyard, and Tennyson Down is the most prominent hill - falling in a white cliff to the sea - in the area.

Sunday, 6 August 2017

Return to the particular:There is a grave beside a wallNear where the waters rise and fall,Tidally, by the river Yar.Life has its rising swells of hopeAnd if these sink in ebbs of careWe normally avoid despair,Struggle a bit, and learn to cope.Marina does not have the joyOf hope, nor does she crave successAnd watch its rising happiness,As the tide bears an air-filled bouy.Marina does not have to drudgeBailing the waters from her boatTo keep her ebbing dreams afloatUntil they founder in the sludge.

Friday, 4 August 2017

God moves in a mysterious wayHis wonders to perform, and yetIt is the will of God to letHis mind be known through prophecy.If in the detail of His waysWe rest upon His grace and trustWe know His work, in its broad thrust,Secures a people for His praise.Standing before Christ's judgment seatWe shall observe the perfect skillThat chastened us to work God's willWhen all that working is complete.He will complete what He begunAnd carried on by calm or storm:It is His purpose to conformUs to the image of God's Son!

Tuesday, 1 August 2017

An insect moves among the treesUnconscious of the pollen's powerConveyed by her from flower to flowerAs she pursues the yen of bees.Seeing the bee a honey guideHas turned a ratel from its tracksTo rob the honey and the waxAs their instinctive lusts provide.The pistil, fertilised, transforms -Seed, shoot and sapling pullulate;Birds, beasts and insects congregateIn vibrant, interactive swarms.Again God's detailed work is provedThrough skills we barely understandSince He has webbed strand after strandOf life, because an insect moved.